


perennial

by erzi



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 08:18:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18937036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erzi/pseuds/erzi
Summary: "I mean," Tanuma briskly adds, "I always like to spend time with you."Natsume steals a glance at him. His hand is resting on the back of his neck."Imean," Tanuma says, fingers curling on his hair, "I don't mind helping you.""Well, thank you," Natsume says, "I like you helping me." He purses his lips immediately, unsure what to make of what either he or Tanuma had said. He faces forward again, hoping it's not too obvious how quick he did so.





	perennial

Natsume ducks under a low branch. "Sensei, it's fine to admit you're lost. This is a big forest."

Nyanko-sensei turns his head back, scowling. "We're not lost! We're almost there!"

"You said that a while ago."

"I mean it this time!"

"We can go to a store instead to buy some other berries-"

Nyanko-sensei suddenly stops walking and Natsume almost trips over him. "Absolutely not! I know I saw wineberries somewhere here. I can have strawberries on cake any time, but not wineberries! I want the wineberries! Wild berries taste better, everyone knows that!"

"Okay, but if we're not there within fifteen minutes, I'm going home."

Nyanko-sensei wildly swats Natsume's calves, claws protracted. "Weakling! You're a weakling, Natsume!"

"Ow! Sensei, stop it!" Natsume shoos Nyanko-sensei by shaking the basket he'd been holding, but he clings on to his leg. Natsume smooshes his face in an attempt to pry him off. "Sensei, get off me! Your claws are sharp and you're heavy!"

"That's just the weight of my fur!"

"Is someone there?"

Natsume and Nyanko-sensei go very still, slowly swiveling in the direction the voice had come from. Leaf litter crunches beneath feet that aren't theirs, the sound becoming crisper as the stranger nears.

They both yelp. Nyanko-sensei scurries up Natsume's leg and hides behind his shoulder.

An indiscernible figure shadowed by the forest plants approaches, calling out in a voice that whispers something in the back of Natsume's head.

"Sensei-" he starts, but is shushed.

A branch cracks like a bone. A lithe and pale hand carefully wraps around a tree, followed by a mess of black hair.

Tanuma peeks at them. "Oh. It's you, Natsume. And Ponta."

Their bodies go slack as they sigh in relief.

"You scared us, Tanuma," Natsume says, smiling. His heartbeat has not gone back down.

"No, only Natsume was scared," Nyanko-sensei says, climbing down. He licks his paw to clean his ear as if he hadn't been cowering, too. "He's a weakling."

Natsume glares at him.

"Sorry about that," Tanuma says, stepping around the tree. "What are you two doing here?"

"Looking for wineberries," Nyanko-sensei supplies. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"We're not far from my house. It's nice out, so I thought I'd take a walk. But wineberries?" Tanuma points right. "You're going the wrong direction."

"Ah! Told ya, Natsume! We're close." Nyanko-sensei bounds nimbly over gnarled roots, humming happily to himself. Despite their bickering, Natsume smiles as he watches him go.

"He's a handful," Tanuma says, walking closer to Natsume, one of his hands brushing Natsume's as he finds his place by him.

Natsume's smile wavers between nervousness and happiness. "He is."

Tanuma's expression softens.

The dense foliage hides most of the sun, and Natsume can't explain the warmth in his cheeks.

"Um," Tanuma says after a moment, motioning forward, "should we follow?"

"Oh. Yeah."

They make light conversation, bird and insect chirps a pleasant background.

"You know the forest by your house well," Natsume says.

"Not really. I don't explore it as often as I should. I actually can't remember how I stumbled on the wineberry thicket, but I'm glad I did, since it led to today."

"Oh," Natsume says again, that mysterious warmth redder.

"I mean," Tanuma briskly adds, "I always like to spend time with you."

Natsume steals a glance at him. His hand is resting on the back of his neck.

"I _mean_ ," Tanuma says, fingers curling on his hair, "I don't mind helping you."

"Well, thank you," Natsume says, "I like you helping me." He purses his lips immediately, unsure what to make of what either he or Tanuma had said. He faces forward again, hoping it's not too obvious how quick he did so.

"So," Tanuma says, voice somewhat different than usual, "why do you need wineberries?"

"Touko-san wanted to bake a cake, and Sensei wanted it to be decorated with them because it's a less common dessert fruit. He'd seen them here before, so we went out to forage for them, but we've been at this an hour with nothing to show for it. You're really helping us out." There he goes again, saying things without thinking why.

"It's no problem. Going about the forest is better with someone than alone."

The birds and insects' songs seem to fill up more of the woods than before, winding past every leaf and stem to wrap invisibly around Natsume and Tanuma.

Natsume nods, words not wanting to come to him.

A distant meow of delight. "Natsume, I found them!"

Natsume looks around. "Nyanko-sensei? Where are you?"

"The thicket is at the edge of the forest," Tanuma says. "We're just a little ways."

The towering trees Natsume and Nyanko-sensei had gotten lost in have given way to younger, slender plants; the grass is springy underfoot. The summer sun beckons them where forest intermingles with field.

Nyanko-sensei is at a bush dotted red with berries. "So your wimp of a friend is useful after all!"

Tanuma's face falls. "'Wimp'?"

Natsume waves his hands as if dismissing the insult from the air. "Don't mind him, Tanuma! He's mean." He bends to be eye-level with the bush. The wineberries are in clusters, flowering from fuzzy tufts. He reaches out to pluck one but something pricks his finger, making him wince as he withdraws his hand.

"Natsume?" Tanuma gets down beside him, a hand fluttering to his elbow. "What's wrong? Is there a youkai?"

"No." He inspects his finger, a single drop of blood bright as the berries welling up. "The wineberries have spines. I cut myself."

"I have a handkerchief with me."

Natsume turns to him, but Tanuma's face is cast down, handkerchief delicately dabbing at his cut.

"It's not bleeding so bad," Tanuma says to Natsume's fingers. It tickles. "It'd be better to wash it before cleaning it, but I don't have any water on me."

Natsume now becomes aware of Tanuma's light hold around his hand. He pulls it back, clutching it to his heart that's yet to calm down. "It's okay. Thank you, Tanuma."

Tanuma looks up, blinking as if he'd just been in a daze. His ears color up. "Um. Yeah."

"Can you two stop being stupid," Nyanko-sensei says, wriggling in between them, "and start picking berries? I'm hungry."

Natsume knuckles the top of Nyanko-sensei's head.

They don't have gloves, so they move carefully as they take berries off the bushes and place them in the basket. The spines only shallowly scratch at them, not even breaking their skin. Nyanko-sensei had apparently been helping himself to berries, as it gives Natsume a brief fright when he sees Nyanko-sensei's snout stained red.

"Try one, Natsume!" Nyanko-sensei says.

"I want to wait until the cake is done."

"They're pretty good, though," Tanuma says, a couple on his palm. He takes one between thumb and forefinger, offering Natsume a berry. "Here, just one."

Natsume's eyes widen, the berry so close to him that everything else blurs. He looks between it and Tanuma, it and Tanuma, and squeezes his eyes shut as he quickly eats half of it, the remaining half too close to Tanuma's hand. It's ripe with a tangy sweetness. He leans back, opening his eyes, finding Tanuma statue-still, staring at him as wide-eyed as he'd been earlier, the berry's other half dribbling juice on his fingers.

Natsume belatedly realizes Tanuma had probably meant for him to take the berry, not eat it directly.

He covers his mouth, feeling heat on his face.

Tanuma, the pink from his ears spreading to his cheeks, eyes the berry like he doesn't know what he should do with it.

Nyanko-sensei swiftly swipes it from him, and the berry falls to the earthen ground.

That seems to undo the heart-bumbling strangeness of what had happened. Natsume uncovers his mouth. "Sensei, that was rude."

"He wasn't doing anything with it."

"Well, I-" Tanuma says. He doesn't say whatever else was supposed to follow, instead busying himself with picking more berries.

"What, were you going to eat it?" Nyanko-sensei asks. "After Natsume bit it?"

Tanuma opens his mouth – and says nothing; he closes it, again preoccupied with the berry bush.

Nyanko-sensei scoffs. "Humans."

Natsume can't think of a retort. He goes back to picking berries, the small cut on his finger and his lips pulsing at the same beat as his heart.

 _If Tanuma had eaten it_ , he thinks, _then-_

He shakes his head, embarrassed by his own thoughts.

The basket pile of berries grows full.

"I think that's enough," Natsume says, standing up, brushing grass from his pants. "They were only going to be decoration, but we have enough we can make an actual wineberry dessert now."

" _Two_ cakes!" Nyanko-sensei says.

"It'll be up to Touko-san, though."

Tanuma gets up as well. "If she doesn't want to make another," he says, eyes in the forest's direction, arms empty at his sides, "maybe we could?"

Natsume's mouth tingles with the berry's shape and taste. He nods – not too quickly, not too slowly. "We should do that."

"Me too, me too!" Nyanko-sensei says.

"No," Natsume and Tanuma say at the same time. They share a look. Their laughter bubbles like a brook.

"Why not?!" Nyanko-sensei demands.

Natsume nestles the basket in the crook of his arm. "You were mean to Tanuma. You can't have it both ways."

"Yeah," Tanuma says, "that's my reason why."

Something about it isn't very convincing and it makes Natsume's heart do an inexplicable little flip.

"Are you going home now?" Tanuma asks.

"Yes. That's all we had to do today."

"Do... you mind if I walk you home? Um, walk home with you, I meant."

"We do," Nyanko-sensei flatly says.

" _No_ , we don't," Natsume says, nudging him with his foot. He adjusts the basket on his arm. "Let's go, Tanuma."

Tanuma smiles at him and his heart does another little flip. "Okay, Natsume."

Nyanko-sensei humphs and waddles in front. Natsume follows, Tanuma by his side, a summer promise between them.

**Author's Note:**

> [nyanko-sensei lorge form voice] if u want to date my human son boy u must answer my riddle


End file.
